Dear Marylou: As a design student, I read voraciously about the designer runway shows. Tell me what to make of what the buyers are calling "The Urban Dandy." -- F.J., Kent

Dear F.J.: First, let's go to the dandy. In checking several sources, I find that the origin of the word is uncertain, yet most historians trace it to London in 1813-16, when men wore extravagant cravats, covered their shoes in spats, carried walking sticks and tipped their high-crown hats whenever a lady approached. For fall, the look will be downsized, but it still connotes spiffy, "all spruced up," dressed with care, man as peacock. To me, the best way to tap into a look without getting engulfed by it is to take one element of that look and try it out. I believe the one big element of that look -- the hat with the raised crown -- is the first sign of the urban dandy. If you watched the Inauguration festivities, the man who personified the look was will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. His hat was memorable.

The Bromley hat, in the illustration here, was named for the "great-grand relative" of Gary Watrous, founder of Head 'N Home hats. Trevor Stranger, who designed the hat, says it was inspired by hats "the working stiff" might have worn in the late 1800s. He says it was "informed by the many colorful subcultures in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, replete with all manner of freak and geek." The Bromley ($149.95) is made of leather with a brass buckle, and it's available in black and brown. You can order at 1-800-642-3428 or contact Beth Watrous at beth@headnhome.com.

Dear Marylou: You have written that quite a few of the red-carpet celebrities have taken to wearing dresses and gowns with long sleeves, citing the coverage of tattoos as the reason. Is this a continuing trend? -- D.J.T., Littleton, Colo.

Dear D.J.T.: Given the fact that women who can afford haute couture are often "older," the many long-sleeved gowns shown during the January haute couture collections in Paris could be attributed as much to a need to cover sagging arms as to cover tattoos. But I think it's also an expression of a trend to looking more refined and circumspect. Purity becomes a fashion virtue. And I would credit fashion's new sense of propriety to the Duchess of Cambridge.

Dear Marylou: I've been reading accounts of the latest menswear shows and note that several designers showed Chesterfield coats. What is a Chesterfield coat? -- T.M., Staten Island, N.Y.

Dear T.M.: It's smoking right now on both sides of the Atlantic. Originally, the Chesterfield was a single-breasted fly-front coat with a plain back and notched lapel. One big distinguishing characteristic was its velvet collar -- or in some instances a velvet half collar. In its latest incarnation, the Chesterfield also appears double-breasted. The name comes from the man who first wore it in the 18th century: Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.

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